Abstract: Goal-directed action is a basic trait of biology, which is also an important standard for identifying whether the entity is alive. There are three viewpoints about preschooler’s distinguishing living things from non-living things through goal-directed movement, namely, able, unable or only able to understand animals’ goal-directed action except plants’. According to goal-directed action, some researches about how children understand people’s, animals’ and plants’ goal-directed action are introduced in this essay. Researches about preschooler how to attribute goal-directed action of unfamiliar things are also introduced. Furthermore, previous researches are evaluated and some questions remaining to be answered in the future are put forward.

Key words: goal-directed action, naï, ve biology, causal explanation